Numerical investigation of drag and heat reduction in hypersonic spiked blunt bodies

In this investigation, the effects of spike as retractable drag and aerodynamic heating reduction into the reentry Earth’s atmosphere for hemispherical body flying at hypersonic flow have been numerically studied. This numerical solution has been carried out for different length, shapes and nose configuration of spike. Additional modifications to the tip of the spike are investigated in order to obtain different bow shocks, including no spike, conical, flat and hemispherical aerodisk mounted. Unsteady compressible 3-D Navier–Stokes equations are solved with k − ω (SST) turbulence model for a flow over a forward facing spike attached to a heat shield for a free stream Mach number of 6. The obtained numerical results are compared with the experimental ones, and the results shows acceptable verification. This analysis shows that the aerodisk is more effective than aerospike. The designs produced 60 and 15 % reduction in drag and wall temperature responses, respectively.